Friday, June 30, 2023

Amazing Kozhiglover on Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov

Fantastic Eretz Tzvi from the Kozhiglover:

מַה־טֹּ֥בוּ אֹהָלֶ֖יךָ יַעֲקֹ֑ב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

Rashi explains:

על שראה פתחיהם שאין מכוונין זה מול זה

How did Rashi get that from the pasuk?

The Shem m'Shmuel writes in many places that if a person strives to do good and therefore be zocheh to Torah, they are bound to come up short and fail because the goodness of Torah is so beyond anything we can achieve or merit.  The way to be zocheh is through sur mei'ra, through avoiding the negatives, avoiding that which is harmful and wrong, because that we are able to achieve.

This is the meaning of Moshe's answer to the malachim when they challenged him as to why the Torah should be given to mankind and not them.  "Do you have a yetzer ha'ra as man does?" Moshe asked.  Meaning, without a yetzer ha'ra you do not face the challenge of evil and wrongdoing.  Your only means to be zocheh to Torah is through positive action that would merit such a reward.  To earn Torah in that way is impossible.  It can only be earned by the negation of evil.

Yaakov is called "ish tam yosheiv ohalim" in the plural, two tents.  There is the tent that closes a person in so that they avoid the temptations of the outside world, and then there is the tent the hides a person's achievements and actions so that they should be a oveid Hashem b'tzeniyus.

Mah tovu ohalecha, also in the plural, because we have inherited these two "tents" from Yaakov Avinu.

Bilam saw that "ain pischeihem michuvanim."  "Pischu li pesach k'chudo shel machat, v'eftach lachem k'pischo shel ulam." (Shir haShirim Rabbah 2)  Hashem opens gates for us far in excess of what we could do on our own.  Bilam could not understand how even that is enough, as the hasagos that one can achieve in Torah are beyond even the "pischo shel ulam."  It was only when he saw  מַה־טֹּ֥בוּ אֹהָלֶ֖יךָ יַעֲקֹ֑ב, the tzeniyus, the sur mei'ra, the avoidance of impropriety and wrongdoing that the olahlei Yaakov represented, that he was able to fathom "ain pischeihem michuvanim" on the largest scale.

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